bazze was kind enough to post a Panoramic Image; that he's used to map a sphere to fill the backgounds of many of his Cinema 4D images, in the Free Stuff area!

I IM'd him about using this in Poser, but he was'nt sure.

Has anyone seen this done before?

The questions I had for him were:

1.)  How large do you make the sphere in relation to the plane props?

2.)  I'm thinking you then put the props inside the sphere, but then how do you map the inside of a sphere?

3.)  I'm also curious to know how to light the inside of a sphere, as big as I think you're using, without burning the prop?

His answers were:

1.)  "I can make it infinite or just as large so it fits the props. Its size doesn't matter as long as the sphere (a) doesn't cast any shadows and (b) isn't affected by any lights in the scene."

2.)  "The sphere has no thickness - when the material is applied it looks the same on the spheres outside as on its inside."

3.)  "The scene is lit by one "sun" object. The sphere with the panorama texture is however set not to be affected by the sun object (ie the spehere doesn't cast any shadows on the props). The spehere is also set to be self illuminated. In this way the spehere "only" is a background that is independent from the rest of the lights in the scene."

I wonder how mouch of this  applies to Poser 6? 

1.)  I've never ehard of an Infinite Prop in Poser, and am very concerned if I make it too small then I'll get sghadows on it.

2.)  I've not heard of Thickness in relation to Poser either, and am still wondering how to Map the inseide of a Sphere prop.

3.)  I think I know how to tund "Cast Shadows" off from the Properties Palette, but am also sure I've never heard opf Self Illuminating, with regard to Poser either?

Any replies/links will be greatly appreciated!

remember when you use a sphere the mapping is on the OUTside...

So when you use a BIG sphere as a skydome the mapping is still on the OUTside...

Try Reverse normals on the sphere ... or load it into uvmapper and reverse it in there...

 

Cutting the sphere allmost in half can be handy ...

Chris

Quote - remember when you use a sphere the mapping is on the OUTside...

So when you use a BIG sphere as a skydome the mapping is still on the OUTside...

Try Reverse normals on the sphere ... or load it into uvmapper and reverse it in there...

 

Cutting the sphere allmost in half can be handy ...

Chris

I found this in the free stuff last night, the mapping looks like its on both the inside and outside.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?user_id=4144

So cant you use that one ?

 

Acadia!  That is what I'm writing about.  It is only an image file.  At that the artist, bazze, intended for it to be used in C4D.

I'm surprised you hav'nt seen anything about this.  i'm sure there was a similar post a little while back, but I hav'nt found the link!

IIRC, if you create a sphere in Poser, make it big enough to enclose the entire scene, set it to not cast/recieve shadows (not sure about the recieve bit) and apply a texture to it - it should work...

Of course, I could be wrong (I usually am.)

Cheers,
Diolma

(Oh, and BTW - the "Ground Plane"  is an infinite prop - so actually you have heard of one:-))

Cheers,
Diolma

It would be helpful if you posted the image that you're trying to use. That would indicate how the mapping was done on the sphere ( cylindrical, cylindrical with end caps, spherical etc.) From that it would be simple to set up a half-sphere with the normals pointing in instead of out and with the required mapping. You'd just apply the image as a texture and then scale the half-sphere to enclose as much of the scene as necessary.

Attached Link: http://drgeep.com/TUT/bg/BG.htm

Dr Geep has a tutorial on backgrounds including how to work with a sky dome.

bushi - The image I'm tryin to use is the Free Stuff link, that Acadia also posted.

I hav'nt tried Normls. becasue I'm still waiting to hear of Thickness.

I hav'nt tried a half sphere, becasue I'm still waiting to hear of Self Illumination.

But, I'll be sure to post some renders as soon as I get anything figured out!

 

Ok, here's what can work for you:

1 - Use a sphere prop from the primitves section of your library. The hi-res is probably going to work better for you than the lo, given the scale we're going to make it.

2 - Using the Grouping tool, select one half of the sphere. Then click on Spawn Prop. Export this hemisphere as an obj, then import it back in, making sure you click on the 'reverse normals' option. It might be worth saving this hemisphere back to your props library for future use.

1. • Make sure that, in the prop's properties box, cast and receive shadows are clicked off.

4 - Scale up the hemisphere to surround your scene.

5 - In the material room, add your material to the AMBIENT colour channel, and set your ambient value to 1. Diffuse and specular should be set to zero.

This will give you a self-illuminated, shadowless skydome, big enough to cover your scene, and flexible enough for use with any relevant map you can find.

Hope this helps.

jonthecelt

I can't find in Poser 5 a way to clicking off receiving shadows: is this a Poser 6 only feature?

jonthe celt - Thank you very much for your input I'll definately give this a whirl, but I've still got my fingers crossed for a whole sphere, this way I would be able to circle my camera arounf the my figure.  I suppose I could parent the semisphere tp the camera, and then use an .AVI as a texture, but I've never tried a video texture, and am sure there would be a little timing involved.

marco-xxx - The shodws checkbox is in the Properties Palette, when you have your prop selected.  Shadows are also in your Render Options.

In Poser 5 Properties Palette there is cast shadows check box only, not a check box for receiving shadows, so I argue that this is a Poser 6 feature...

That texture map is already setup for a sphere so it's pretty easy to do it all in Poser (I'm using P6). Get the Hi-Res sphere in the props library and open the Setup Room. Click on the Grouping Tool and the Group Editor will open. The sphere should turn red showing that it is select as a group. On the Editor window, near the bottom, there is a button labeled 'Reverse Group Normals' . Click it then click the Pose Room tab. You'll get a warning message but just ignore it. Now you can just apply the image as a texture. This process was very similar to jonthecelt's. With his you get a prop, with mine a figure. Either way it'll work fine. Here's an image from inside the sphere. The inset is the sphere from outside. I used a singe point light for illumination but there's lots of room to tinker once you get the texture on the sphere.

Thanks Guys,

I still need to try our advice, but thought I'd drop in to post a link I found a RDNA, for a Free Stuff item, by Traveler, named SkyDome V3:

http://www.runtimedna.com/mod/filelib/viewed.php?file_id=5671

It also has Add-Ons:

http://www.runtimedna.com/mod/filelib/viewed.php?file_id=8267

http://www.runtimedna.com/mod/filelib/viewed.php?file_id=8269

and I think is compatable with RDNA's MicoCosm, but I hav'nt gotten anything to work yet...

=  )

Mate, posting direct links to somebody elses files like that is called "bandwidth theft" because it lets people download RDNAs files without actually visiting RDNA.  You need to post links to the pages those files are downloaded from instead.

I see where you are comming from, but if you have a look at the logo at the bottom of this page, for Bondware Webolutions, you'll note the owners of RDNA, as well as this site.

6 of one, half dozen of another.  It's a matter of convenience, RDNA gets their  name published/advertised, through the link, but they would need to put up the "Bandwidth" to show the page, on top of then providing more for the link.  If RDNA is concerned with credit(which they should be) they will have their name on the file or in a ReadMe(Which they usually do.)

For that, just the fact it did'nt take me any special effort to provide the links this way, from WinXP, must count for something toward the generations of development that went into setting up HTTP to it's current state?